Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Fouled-Off Bunts: The Calm Before The Storm

Nick Johnson makes his triumphant return to the Nationals lineup, after having most of the month off with a bruised heel.

As NJ comes back, Jose Guillen goes out. He's still suffering from a bruised hand, where he was beaned on Sunday. He's day-to-day, but Robinson has said he could be out as long as a week.

Does anyone really think he won't be back by tomorrow?

Either Sunny Kim or Kenny Kelly are likely to be sent down. We're at 12 pitchers now, but with a few shaky starters, the extra arm might be more important.

Wil Cordero was officially waived, making him a free agent.

Now he'll have more time at home to beat his wife.

The most interesting article of the day is Les Carpenter's extended look at Frank Robinson's delegation of managing duties to Ed Rodriguez.

We learn that Ed makes the lineup out the majority of the time and that he's the one who has the L/R/L fetish, not Frank.

It raises several questions though.

What exactly is Frank's job? He's a wretched in-game decision maker (other than with the bullpen, for the most part), and he's definitely not a conflict resolver with his players. What are his strengths? And how do we know what they are -- other than our projections that he's done something vague like 'set a tone'?

The other question it raises is why does Frank hate computers? When he first discussed this earlier in the season, which was quickly followed by the 'manages by his gut' storyline, I defended him. I said that his knowledge of game situations served as a sort of internal computer.

My rationale was that he had seen everything, and that he'd know how to react. Well, I was wrong.

And Frank's continued inability to use numbers is fine as long as he realizes that some of his in-game strategies hurt the team.

But there's no indication that that's the case.

All I can do is shrug at this point.

At least I still have the 'WTF Frank Senior Moments' to vent my frustration!

The Washington Times looks at the shallow pool of catchers in the organization. In other words, pray that Brian Schneider stays healthy!